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Louis I Napoleon Bonaparte, King of Holland, Count of Saint-Leu (Lodewijk Napoleon in Dutch) (September 2, 1778 – July 25, 1846) was the fifth surviving child and fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino.
Louis was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a younger brother of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon I of France, Lucien Bonaparte and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline Bonaparte, Caroline Bonaparte and Jérôme Bonaparte.
His early career was spent in the army and he served with Napoleon in Egypt. Thanks to Napoleon, he was a General by the age of 25, though he himself felt that he had been risen too far, too fast.
Napoleon made him king of Holland on June 5, 1806. Intended by his older brother as little more than a French governor, Louis took his duties as king seriously, calling himself Koning Lodewijk I (adopting the Dutch form of his name), attempting to learn the Dutch language and trying hard to be a responsible, independent ruler of Holland. Allegedly, when he first arrived in Holland, he told the people he was the Konijn van 'Olland ("rabbit of 'Olland"), rather than "Ik ben koning van Holland" ("I am the King of Holland"), because his Dutch was not yet very good. However, this showed that he was at least trying to speak Dutch.
Two major tragedies occurred during his reign: the explosion of a ship filled with gunpowder in the heart of the city of Leiden in 1807, and a major flood in 1809. In both instances, Louis personally and effectively oversaw local relief efforts, which helped earn him the moniker of Louis the Good.
Napoleon, accusing him of putting Dutch interests above those of France, forced him to abdicate on July 1, 1810.
Louis Bonaparte had also been created the Count of Saint-Leu. He was created Constable of France in 1808, a strictly honorary title.
After the death of his elder brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although he took little action himself to advance the claim. (His son and heir, the future Napoleon III, on the other hand, was at that time imprisoned in France for having tried to engineer a Bonapartist coup d'etat).
Louis died on July 25, 1846, and is buried at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.
Louis was married on January 4, 1802 to Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of deceased general Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. Josephine was the first wife of his brother Napoleon. Thus Hortense was also a niece-by-marriage to Louis.
The marriage had been forced upon them and was quite loveless. As a rule, the Bonapartes, with the exception of Napoleon, loathed the Beauharnais. Louis even doubted the legitimacy of his sons.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais had three sons:
Louis was also father to illegitimate son Francois de Castelvecchio (April 26, 1826 - May 29, 1869). He was born in Rome and died in Rennes.